DAVENANT FOUNDATION GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Davenant Foundation School

Gules three escallops between seven crosses crosslet fitchy three one two and one argent within a border argent charged with eight lows of flame proper [Granted 1962]

The Davenant Foundation Grammar School was
founded and endowed in 1680 by Ralph Davenant,
Rector of St. Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel, Mary
his wife, and Sarah his sister-in-law. (fn. 1) Ralph and
Mary Davenant declared their intention
of maintaining a
schoolmaster to give
free instruction to
forty poor boys of the
parish in reading,
writing, ciphering, and
the principles of the
Church of England.
In the same document
Henry and Sarah Gullifer undertook to provide for the education
of thirty poor girls; a
schoolmistress was to
teach them the catechism, reading, knitting, plain sewing, and
any other useful work. Davenant died before buildings could be erected, but in March 1686 a licence
was obtained from the Bishop of London to build
the school on a detached part of the burial ground
of St. Mary's about a quarter of a mile east of
the church. (fn. 2) In 1701 an unknown benefactor gave
the foundation £1,000, expressing the wish that the
children might be clothed as well as educated. (fn. 3)

During the 18th century the school, which enjoyed
an income of over £500 a year, appears to have
accepted children at the age of eight, educated and
clothed them to the age of fourteen, and then
apprenticed them to masters or mistresses who were
of good character, Anglicans, and in useful trades. (fn. 4)
Between 1783 and 1830 the school received a score
of gifts totalling over £5,000. Of these the most
munificent was the sum of £1,000 from Luke Flood,
a former treasurer of the trustees, the interest on
which was to be distributed annually among such
old boys as were able to furnish proof that they had
completed their apprenticeships satisfactorily and
attended divine worship regularly. (fn. 5)

In 1806 Bell's monitorial system was introduced
with the help of Bell himself, who visited the school
daily in the September of that year. Bell chose a
dozen of the best and cleanest boys and appointed
them monitors, two to a class; the best of all was
made usher. Another boy was sent from the Sunday
school at Swanage (Dors.), where Bell lived, to
assist. (fn. 6) The results drew enthusiastic comments
from the trustees and led a number of clergy and
educationalists to visit the school. (fn. 7) Among the latter
was Mrs. Trimmer, who declared herself pleased,
but added that the noise was greater than she had
expected. (fn. 8) In 1813 a Whitechapel branch of the
National Society was formed and opened schools in
St. Mary Street (fn. 9) immediately to the west of the
existing school. These later became known as the
Davenant schools, while Davenant's original foundation took the name of Whitechapel Foundation
School.

The introduction of Bell's system led to an increase in numbers from 60 to 100 boys and from
40 to 100 girls. (fn. 10) To accommodate this increase a
new building for the Foundation School was erected
in Whitechapel Road in 1818, the cost being partly
met from gifts of £500 from a coachbuilder called
Lewis and £300 from Samuel Hawkins. (fn. 11) Annual
expenditure fell from £690 in 1816 to about £600 in
1836. In each year clothing was the biggest item
(£310, £281). Salaries accounted for about £140,
shared in 1816 between a master (£100), and a
matron (£38), and in 1836 between a master and his
assistant (£100) and the assistant's wife (£40). In
1836 the sum of £44 was spent on apprenticeship
fees for 12 children, and £25 was raised by the sale
of the children's work, including stockings knitted
by the boys. (fn. 12)

In the 1850 s, through the efforts of Canon
William Weldon Champneys, Rector of Whitechapel, and other trustees, various charities were
amalgamated to form the Whitechapel Foundation
Commercial School. Buildings were erected in
Leman Street, and the school opened in 1858 with
50 boys, soon increased to 200. The curriculum
included the principles of Christianity, Latin,
French, German, and such other languages and
sciences as might be considered expedient, and the
fee was £3 a year. (fn. 13) In 1888 the Commercial School
and the boys' department of the Foundation School
were amalgamated; the combined school was carried
on temporarily in the cramped Leman Street
premises, and the Whitechapel Road building was
converted to provide a chemical laboratory and
workshops. Elementary schools for boys, girls, and
infants were continued in the Whitechapel Society's
building in St. Mary Street. (fn. 14)

In 1896 the Leman Street premises were closed
on the completion of a new hall and classrooms
behind the Whitechapel Road school; further extensions were made in 1909. (fn. 15) In 1928 the name of
Davenant was restored shortly before the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the foundation. The school was granted voluntary aided status
in 1953. Because of the decreasing child population
of the area it was decided to move into Essex. In
1963 the building of a new school at Loughton was
begun, (fn. 16) and the school was scheduled to move in
September 1965.

12. 32nd Rep. Com. Char. (pt. 2), p. 555; cutting (c. 1819)
in Stepney Pub. Libr. Still standing in 1963 as 179 Whitechapel Road; claims that this is the 1686 building extensively altered are not supported by the architectural
evidence.

15. They were not reopened after the Second World War
(Lond. Schs. Plan 1947, p. 109). Buildings briefly described
in Pevsner, Lond. ii. 426 as 'the former Davenant School'.
Ret. Endowed Char. Lond. (1897), pp. 770-1, 778-80.